IX.PR Internet Exchange Puerto Rico in Peer we trust Mehmet Akcin mehmet@nic.pr NIC cctld.pr Gauss Research Laboratory
Appendix The research The results Why IX.PR? Examples.. The Real Problems How IX.PR was founded? How IX.PR is supported? Membership PR Internet Caribbean Internet
The Research Six months of NetFlow statistics from several of Puerto Rico s large networks (>50Mbps). University of Puerto Rico One of the largest American universities. Arecibo Observatory (SETI@HOME) is attached to this network. A large ISP Serving Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic Large corporate and governmental customers, and %35 of the island s residential market via cable. Smaller ISPs These ISPs usually offer business services including VoIP, and hosting.
The Results of the Research As much as %50 of Puerto Rican ISPs traffic leaves Puerto Rico before returning to another ISP on the island. Prior to the establishment of IX.PR, there was no peering on-island. All ISPs were peering in Miami. Very high demand of local communication tools that require a lot of bandwidth such as; Peer to Peer Applications Online Games Voice / Video Conference VoIP
Why IX.PR? The amount of bandwidth & fiber that s being wasted due to high demand of local communication and not having peering between service providers. High Latency between the networks. Let s see some examples...
A Large ISP to Government Site
A Cable Internet to University of PR
Two Cable Internet Company
Two Large ISPs in Puerto Rico Two Large ISP in Puerto Rico
The real problems: Some ISPs don t understand Internet economics and are afraid that their competitors will gain disproportionately. Many ISPs are dependent upon senior engineers who work remotely from the mainland U.S. or Europe, and are out-of-touch with the situation on the ground. Conversely, when local engineers gain experience, they often emigrate. There s a general misconception that most content consists of web pages hosted overseas, while in reality, local applications like peer-to-peer file sharing,voip, and online gaming consume a far larger share of bandwidth.
The real problems: Both ISPs and customers in the Caribbean market tend to place a higher priority on reducing costs than on increasing reliability. All the campuses of the University of Puerto Rico are single-homed through one OC-3 to a single ISP. Monopoly control is still prevalent in both local loop and international bandwidth, throughout the Caribbean. (Excluding PR)
How was IX.PR founded? Hosted by the Gauss Research Laboratory of the University of Puerto Rico Dr. Oscar Moreno, the founder & director of Gauss Research Laboratory Puerto Rican Internet pioneer Connected UPR to Internet2 Provided institutional sponsorship for the IX.PR Mehmet Akcin, manager of the Internet Exchange of Puerto Rico. Developed and promoted the IX.PR Day-to-day technical management of the exchange
Organizational Chart of IX.PR Gauss Research Laboratory Board of Trustees Board of Peers Board of Co-location facilities
How is IX.PR supported? Not-for-profit organization. Core location and power are provided by University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras Campus, College of Natural Sciences, at no cost A specially designed datacenter Backup power to support two weeks of non-stop operation Main and two backup air conditioning systems Monitoring and alarm system Core Equipment was donated by Packet Clearing House (PCH) 24-ports 10/100/1000Mbps Ethernet switch Monitoring servers donated and hosted by.pr cctld registry E-mail Server Web & Database Servers Labor, organizational assistance, and continuity are provided by Gauss Research Laboratory, the institutional sponsor.
Membership Currently no membership fees NIC.PR cctld registry covering initial expenses Future costs to be shared among the members The fee for monthly payments and joining fee will be decided by the members. Everybody will be paying the membership fee even if they have joined earlier. Fee will be based on the amount of the source they are using, definately not for profit. Just for being able to operate the Internet Exchange daily operations properly.
Participants Largest Puerto Rican ISPs are currently participating. (Or declared their intention of participating) Universities are in the process of connecting This will create a de-facto island-wide research & education network Those universities will also be able to get Internet2 access after making appropriate agreements with HPCF
IX.PR Founding Members University of Puerto Rico Biggest non-isp network in Caribbean/PR Ultracom The Company that owns %80 of fiber-optic cable which land to Puerto Rico Centennial Large ISP Caribe.Net Mid-Large ISP Prepa The Power Company of Puerto Rico which will connect the government to the IX via fiber.
Members in Process of Connecting Inter American University of Puerto Rico 2 nd largest University Sagrado Corazon University - University Polytechnic University 2 nd large Latin American Engineering University in US University of Metropolitan Another University Puerto Rico Telephone Company Largest PR ISP, Telephone Company Adelphia Communications Large Cable TV/Internet Company Liberty Cable TV Large Cable TV/Internet Company University of Phoenix a well known university Banco Popular The largest PR Bank, as well as largest PR Company Ice Networks A medium size ISP Nustream Communications A medium size ISP Telefonica España Who doesn t know them? San Juan Cable, LLC Medium Size ISP Sprint do I need to explain? Neptuno A medium size ISP some small networks who are in the process of getting their AS numbers, and establishing links to us.
Planned Services Route-server Looking-glass Measurement and instrumentation Network Time Protocol Web cache parent News server Root server mirror Software Mirrors SourceForge Linux Mirrors.
Puerto Rican Internet Three main companies operate fiber networks: PRTC Centennial PrePA High speed Internet is ubiquitous: 120K + DSL Customers (2005 est.) 80K + Cable Internet Customers (2005 est.) All schools, kindergarden through university, have computer laboratories with high speed Internet connections. More than 80% of students age 13 and up have e-mail and check it at least once per week. 1 Million Internet users in a total population of 4 million.
Top 10 Networks Serving PR 1 NTT America [AS 2914] 2 Centennial [AS 11992] 3 UUNET [AS 701] 4 Level 3 [AS 3356] 5 University of Puerto Rico [AS 5786] 6 Sprint [AS 1239] 7 New World Network [AS 23520] 8 Qwest [AS 209] 9 San Juan Cable [AS 36423] 10 Telefonica [AS 12956] Wondering how you can get these statisitics for your country? Look for a guy!
Puerto Rico in the Caribbean Statistics show Puerto Rico and Jamaica as the largest Caribbean Internet users. Jamaica has had tremendous growth in 2003-2005. More than 1 million Internet users in a total population of 4 million More Internet users than some European countries: Lithuania, Slovenia, Latvia, Estonia, Moldova.
Caribbean-Wide Issues Many years ago companies made long term agreements with small island governments. They already offer the service that country needs. Usually in small Caribbean countries; Phone company = wireless company = cable TV company, and most of the time, they are the only provider in the country. No real business growth possibility when you consider the population and market are quite small relative to other regions of the world Many Caribbean countries still have anti-competitive regulatory regimes
Thanks! RIPE(esp. Arife, Camilla, Joao) for allowing us to inform you people about the Internet in Caribbean and IX.PR PR cctld registry for financial support for us to travel and participate in this meeting. Bill Woodcock @ PCH. Todd Underwood @ Renesys for statistics. Mike @LINX.
Questions?